The Great Trek begins for football players
JOBURG – Kaizer Chiefs launches a big spring cleaning exercise of its squad in preparation for the 2016/17 season.
The Great Trek of the dry winter season where football players hop from one club to the other in search of greener pastures has just begun.
Leading this trek is South African giants, Kaizer Chiefs, which has offloaded a number of players as it endeavours to rejuvenate its squad in preparation for the coming 2016/17 season.
Chiefs had one of its most disastrous seasons ever, after the arrival of new coach, Steve Komphela to the Naturena side following the departure of coach Stuart Baxter at the end of the 2014/15 season.
Baxter now coaches SuperSport United which he transformed in a short space of time into a solid machine that immediately started winning games and collecting the much-needed points that saw them finish in the top eight of the league. SuperSport went on to win the lucrative Nedbank Cup after convincingly beating Orlando Pirates.
Finishing in the top eight guarantees the team a spot in the season-opening cup, the MTN 8.
Winning the Nedbank Cup opens the doors to play in the Confederation of African Football (Caf) Confederations Cup next year, which Pirates had wanted so badly after performing well the previous season in that competition, though beaten in the final.
Although Chiefs has offloaded close to 10 players, with names such as Reneilwe Letsholonyane, Reyaad Pieterse, Siboniso Gaxa, Tsepo Masilela and Gerald Sibeko among others, Amakhosi have not gone onto the market yet.
Another departing Amakhosi player is Reyaad Pieterse, who has also been snatched up by SuperSport. The 24-year-old goalkeeper joins Matsatsantsa (the Bourgeoisie) on a three-year deal. He is earmarked to bring strong competition into the SuperSport United goalkeeping department that already has Ronwen Williams and Boalefa Pule on its books.
Pieterse joined Amakhosi in 2013 and won the Absa Premiership and Nedbank Cup in 2013 under the tutelage of Baxter.
“Reyaad is a talented goalkeeper with a very promising future,” SuperSport chief executive officer, Stan Matthews said.
“Our coach wants strong competition for every position in the team and with Ronwen, Reyaad and Boalefa between the poles, we think we have the strongest goalkeeping department in the league. When you add in young Mondli Mpoto, who is a national U20 goalkeeper, then the future looks bright for us in this area.”
